On this date, February 7, 1478, St. Thomas More, the patron saint of lawyers, was born at Milk Street, London, the son of a lawyer and judge of the King’s Bench. In his most famous work, Utopia, More envisions a nation in which there seems to be no private contracts at all and loans from the state may be called in at any time if someone needs the money more.

This makes us think that C.S. Lewis was probably right when he argued that Utopia is a satire, not a philosophical tract. (Image: Statute in Notre Dame Law School Library)